Legal Documentation

When property is involved the memory and honesty of men are fragile things.

Contracts between two parties are far easier to enforce when supported by written legal documents. However, with writing skills far from widespread the 'stipulatio', a basic contract between two parties, was agreed orally by both. This form of agreement was the norm in Rome and it took time for written contracts to be accepted. Greek law, on the other hand, had always been based on the principles of written contracts and its influence gradually encouraged the Romans to bind oral contracts within written terms.